Africa's eye on the news

As an African trying to understand American politics, I have a particular interest in the United States Congress and how it works. I have tried to understand why this great deliberative body of lawmakers is often known as "Do-nothing-congress".

But the 110th Congress moved toward bipartisanship in its 100th hours of business, The Christian Science Monitor newspaper reports. According to this report, there was a fairly good number of republicans that worked together with democrats in the the first 100th legislative hours in passing key bills - including ethics rules on lobbying, a bill cutting interest rate into half for student loans, minimum wage bill, among others.

However there remain differences among House Democrats and Republicans on President Bush's new policy for Irag. With the growing opposition for troops increase in Irag, a non-b inding resolution sponsored by top Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the Senate to oppose the White House Irag policy is been considered.

Giving that the 110th Congress has in its first 100 hours of deliberations largely overcome partisan politics in passing some major bills, it could be argued that Americans might be in for more surprises as the 2008 presidential elections draw on. This could be a Congress that reverses many political myths Americans have live with for over a century.